“I’d be happy to accommodate you, my love,” he whispered in her ear as he reached the top of the stairs. Still he didn’t release her, carrying her the short way to the State Room. The door was ajar, and he kicked it the rest of the way open, bearing her through the bedchamber and straight to the dressing room, where Mandy was already drawing a hot bath.
“Get her warmed up and into bed with some hot bricks.”
“Yes, my lord.” Mandy bobbed a curtsey, waiting expectantly for him to leave and then frowning fiercely when he did not.
As much as he knew that he needed to leave so that Hero could bathe, Ian found himself reluctant to go. He longed to stay and see to her recovery himself but he knew that was impossible.
Hero smiled and shrugged out of his jacket. “Give Dickson my apologies for its condition,” she said. “He’d best have a bath waiting for you as well or he will hear from me.”
“I’m sure he would never risk your wrath,” he said lightly before finally turning away. “Get some rest, my…Lady Ayr.”
Ian left to the sound of her equally proper farewell and strode wearily across the hall, eager for his own comfort now that he knew Hero was being taken care of. He needed to speak with her about his confession but it could wait.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Daughter!”
“I think that might be the first time your father hasn’t completely bollixed up a romantic moment for us,” Ian teased Hero a couple days later as they rode side by side through the estate’s parklands far south of the castle.
She couldn’t help but smile, not only from the delight of Ian’s humor but also from the enjoyment of being outside once more. After two days spent in bed being cossetted and pampered, it was a true joy to feel the sunshine warm her flesh and to absorb the sights, sounds, and smells of another glorious summer day.
Her bay mare, Colleen, apparently felt the same way, prancing and shaking her mane. She’d been eager as Hero to run and Hero had given Colleen her head, galloping across the open lawns. They’d only slowed to first a trot and then a walk as they neared the tree line where the parkland morphed into the woodlands and deeper forest beyond.
Ian had been by her side the whole time, his laughter melding with hers as they raced along, the sound trailing like a ribbon in the wind behind them. But for his daily visits at her bedside, she hadn’t seen much of him in the last pair of days, and never alone. Mandy had taken it upon herself to play chaperone.
The brief visits had been filled with nothing deeper than inane chatter about the weather and her health when she’d wanted nothing more than to return to the conversation they had abandoned in the dungeons. Ian had said that he loved her…
Had he meant it or had it merely been a result of their situation?
Perhaps now that she had him all to herself, she might find a way to bring it up.
“Daughter! Ian!” Beaumont called once more, and Hero amended that thought. She would have to share him with her father, but that didn’t bother her at all. It was too beautiful a day to waste, and the company of the pair was ever lively.
“What is it, Papa?”
“Come see.”
In that moment, she felt as exuberant as her father often acted these days. There was so much worth living for. Approaching him through the trees, she pulled her mount to a halt and swung her leg over the pommel, preparing to dismount. Just like that, Ian was there. His hands clasped around her tiny waist as he lifted her from the sidesaddle with a devilish smile. “You are not thinking of denying me even a moment to hold you, are you?”
Smiling, she put her hands on his shoulders and let him lower her to the ground. He let her body slide slowly down the length of his before leaning in to whisper, “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” Her heart racing giddily as he brushed his lips across hers.
“I cannot imagine how we escaped the castle with only your father,” he said. “Daphne’s been a barnacle stuck to my side for the past two days.”
Hero bit back a mischievous grin. At breakfast while her father filled the room with cheerful stories of how Ian had kept him in good company during her recovery, Daphne had smiled with sugary kindness, asking after her welfare. Though Hero inwardly wagered that her rival had been glad for her absence and was none too happy with her reappearance, she had—just as sweetly—declared herself fully recovered and brimming with energy…and invited them all on a ride through the park.
“Daphne hates to ride, you know,” she now told Ian. “Hates horses with a passion, in fact. If she could travel by train everywhere she went, I’m sure she would happily do so.”
“And Kennedy?” he asked. “Surely, he enjoys a ride?”
“Yes, but a good book more. I made sure my new copy ofWestward Ho!was delivered to him this morning,” she said. “I would imagine he is in a chair on the balcony, lost in Kingsley.”
Ian chuckled warmly, tweaking her chin. “Harry was right. You are a clever lass.”
Inclining her head with a blush, she accepted his compliment.
“Daughter, you must come and look at this tree,” the duke called again enthusiastically. “Have you ever seen anything like it?”
